Teen’s harrowing recovery after falling five metres onto rocks | Alds

Excited to take a dip at Waste Point, Lake Jindabyne, the teens took turns launching themselves into the water from a hanging rope swing.
Indi, 17, was hesitant at first, her mother told 7 News, but eventually she took the plunge.

Tragically, Indi missed the water and instead fell five metres onto the rocky outcrop below.

Her friends frantically called an ambulance after she struck her head, cracking her skull.

“Her friends saw some people on a boat nearby and got them to help,” her mother Belinda Pendergast told 7NEWS.com.au.

While the ambulance struggled to navigate their way over to the teens in the remote swimming spot, Indi lost consciousness.

Paramedics rushed Indi to Cooma Hospital before she was flown to Canberra Hospital for emergency surgery to remove part of her skull.

Stuck at work and unable to get to her child, Indi’s mother drove 116km to be by her daughter’s side. By the time she got there, Indi was already in surgery.

“It was the worst moment of my life,” she recalls.

Indi was placed in an induced coma after the accident, leaving her family and friends in the dark in terms of how serious her injuries were.

After a week by her daughter’s bedside, Ms Prendergast was relieved when Indi finally became responsive.

“She started blinking in response to yes and no – finally she moved arm and was squeezing for yes or no.”

Doctors prepared Indi and her family for the worst, predicting at least six months of intensive rehabilitation and specialist care. Indi had suffered memory loss, and was faced with the harrowing challenge of learning to walk and talk again

But she defied the odds, showing remarkable progress within the first month of undergoing daily physio and memory tests.

While she’s thankful she doesn’t remember the accident, Indi says her life is forever changed because of it.

“Before the accident I just wanted to have fun, I didn’t really want to go to uni, I was going to have a few years off, I guess the accident pulled my head in,” she told 7 News.

While she hasn’t decided exactly what she wants to study yet, Indi’s mother believes her commitment to her own health and wellbeing will no doubt guide her future.